Standard dislaimer here.

For those review, realize that a lot of these chapters are unbetad. Any mistakes you catch are welcome. I will eventually go back and fix up the errors... Maybe.

"A library?" Ranma blinked as he looked around the dreamscape. "Interesting. A scholar version of myself."

"In a sense." Ranma spun around at the female voice, tilting his head at the female version of himself. "Tis more the fact that I have spent most of my recent life here that I dream of books." This version was dressed in what looked like a girls school uniform, dress and all. "A visitor? Another version of myself? You are not some nightmare that He has sent to torment me with once more?"

"Umm, no?" Ranma tilted his head at the odd way the girl version of himself was talking. "I sorta learned how to dreamwalk, and I have been visiting over versions of myself." She was oddly lucid as well, Ranma really didn't like what he was picking up.

"Ahh good. I had hoped that I had resisted the renewed bindings." The girl sighed, finding a seat. "So there is another version of myself? And he has retained his male form has he?"

"What happened?" Ranma asked, leaning against a bookcase and looking up. The rose design seemed very prominent on several pieces. It was honestly starting to remind him of the twisted mechanisms of the Fae.

"A fool, an enchanter of a sort playing with magics he really didn't understand. He needed a princess with power and soul, and in greed decided to bind me, and stick me in this form." The female Ranma looked at her male form. She looked oddly calm as she spoke. "He bound me so tightly that I cannot even dream of my true form. He would have violated me as well, but he was not as skilled as he might have wished."

"What the.." Ranma blinked, clenching his hand. "He is still alive?!"

"Unfortunately." The girl smiled then. "I broke a few things in his one attempt, but at the time he was far more skilled than I at the mystical arts. I achieved freedom, of a sort, but he rebound me." Sighing the female form of Ranma got to her feet, swishing her dress. "So I learned, and thus you see the books around you."

"Whats with the way you are speaking then?" Ranma tilted his head. "That's part of the bindings too, isn't it? That is messed up." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I wish I could go to where you were and just shatter this guy, but dammit.."

"I have not been idle." The female version smirked, the first gesture that was actually something that was Ranma. "I saved someone once, and she was bound to return the favor. A magic of sort, so subtle and unnoticeable that he could never find it. It is a fitting irony that he binds me and assumes me broken, only to find that I have sown his destruction."

Ranma shuddered, this version of himself was honestly very scary. Even more so because of the way he voice had never changed from the soft lilting accent that she had been speaking with the entire time.

Shaking his head, Ranma just smiled. "I think, that I am very glad that I am not you, but I do know that you will achieve your goal. Can you still fight at least?"

"When I can slip the bindings." The female version of himself sighed, looking wistful. "I am dreadfully out of practice."

Ranma looked at the girl, smirking. "Liar, I would die fighting, and then get up to demand a rematch. Don't tell me that some pussy little idiot magic user would be able to bind that."

"Well, its not anything goes." The girl smiled in return, gripping a sword from out of no where. "But it is enough to be satisfying, with the right opponent of course."

"Lets go then." Ranma beckoned, getting into a stance.

Yuuko tilted her head at Ranma smile. "Pleasant dreams my knight?"

"Honestly kinda creepy at first, but it was fun near the end." Ranma chuckled as he looked around the table. "Where are Maru and Moro?"

"They are sleeping." Yuuko sighed, looking outside. "With Watanuki injured, and assaults continuing on the house, they have to sleep just to keep up the barriers."

"Harsh." Ranma sighed looking outside the house as well. "I bet me in kitty form didn't help either."

"That twisted reflection of yourself was something that I wish had not happened." Yuuko admitted, picking up a cup of tea. "But I had known that it was inevitable as soon as I found what that child had stolen."

"I know I am not much use in this weird fight you are participating in, but do try to keep me in the loop." Ranma stuck his tongue out at Yuuko. "How the heck did she come about anyway?"

"The one who has sent the majority of this trouble goes by the name of Fei Wong Reed." Yuuko sipped at her tea as she spoke. "He was a compatriot, and could have been said to be my equal. While my specialty could be said to be Hitsuzen, his is something else. You can call it a form of cloning, though that is a gross simplification. What he did was take a portion of you from the Mirror of Jusenkyo and charged it with magic. He then created a body based on your female curse."

Sighing Yuuko set down her tea. "Such a creation is unstable. It is even more unstable when the creation knows that it has no real identity of it's own."

"Freaky." Ranma shrugged. "Eh well, I can kick her ass the next time we meet anyway."

"Indeed." Yuuko commented, looking at Ranma with a smile.

"Nihao!" Xian Pu's voice resounded in the house. "Xian Pu has brought some medicine for clumsy boy." The purple haired girl bounced in, smiling briefly at Ranma. "Should help keep Watanuki from having to re-learn walking." Xian Pu blinked, turning back to Ranma. "Ranma cured!"

"Gack!" Ranma found himself slammed to the floor by an overenthusiastic glomp.

"Xain Pu, that was hardly polite." Yuuko's voice admonished, though she didn't look that upset. She looked more amused than anything else.

"Sorry Yuuko." The purple haired girl held out a small package. "I go check on clumsy boy. Yuuko's skill at bandaging leaves much to be desired." With that the girl bounced off.

"What the heck?" Ranma blinked in surprise.

"Xian Pu has been quite helpful in assisting Watanuki's recovery." Yuuko sounded amused. "The girl has a surprisingly sharp mind, and a good eye for injuries."

"Most good martial artists are. But didn't she want to marry me?!" Ranma half demanded, half asked.

"She does, or more accurately she is going through the motions. Her grandmother and I have come to an understanding of a sort, so she doesn't have to pursue you with any real intensity." Yuuko giggled at Ranma's look. "I had to have someone assist in cooking, now didn't I?"

"Lazy..." Ranma chuckled out.

"Clumsy boy is fine!" Xian Pu smiled, coming to the table. "May this one borrow the Black Pork Bun for a time? Great Grandmother finds it amusing."

"Of course." Yuuko smiled at Xian Pu in return. "Mokona would enjoy that. Be sure to feed him lots."

"Is good entertainment!" Xian Pu giggled. "Customers think that it silly trick, and Black Pork Bun has fun." With that the girl bounced off again.

"How long was I out again?" Ranma asked Yuuko.

"Awhile." Yuuko sighed in reply. "A very long, and honestly quite boring while."

"Ya know, when Yuuko said it was boring, I didnt't think she meant something like you." Ranma commented, looking at the massive coiling snake like creature.

The thing didn't have enough intelligence to respond, but it did know enough to say that Ranma was in the way. So with a massive hiss it lunged forward, it's jaws opened impossibly wide, only to miss as Ranma jumped over the lunge and landed on the things back.

"Yuuko! These things have been attacking the house?" Ranma called to where Yuuko watched from the entrance. "The twins are stronger than I thought."

"Most of the things had been less substantial." Yuuko replied, watching the snake like creature attempt to grab hold of Ranma. "This is one is pure power though, and might have forced me to directly intervene."

"All power and nothing else more like it." Ranma commented, sidestepping another primitive lunge. Almost absently he kicked it as it wound past. "Built better than a tank too."

"I have a few items that would dispatch it when you are done playing." Yuuko smiled as Ranma stuck his tongue out at the beast. "That creature's scales are known to deflect things akin to nuclear power."

"Really?" Ranma blinked at the woman standing at the doorway. "Wow, I knew he was durable, but there is something called overkill."

"Perhaps." Yuuko giggled as the snake, sensing what it thought was an opportunity lunged towards Ranma. "It's strong yes, but it's real power is that there really isn't much that can penetrate it's hide."

"So it wears its opponents down." Ranma sighed, flipping over the next lunge and running down the thing's coiling tail. "Eh well, perfect chance to see if I can use my new technique."

"Really?" Yuuko leaned against the gate. "This should be very interesting."

"Yep." Ranma grinned.

Jusenkyo's curse had done many things to Ranma, but he was nothing if not resilient. Taking pain and hardship and forging it into a weapon was something that was a central tenant to Anything Goes. In this case Ranma had taken three things from the experience.

Dreamwalking, a gift from Yuuko to sooth the madness that he once had. The spell itself had long since ended, but Ranma was nothing if not adaptive, and had wedged the door open so that he could continue to see other versions of himself. At first, Ranma had been ecstatic about learning a thousand new techniques, but experience had taught him otherwise. It was still a dream, and even though fighting was in his blood, there was only so much one could get from dreamworld physics and techniques based on a different knowledge base.

That did however lead into the second thing that Ranma had taken from the experience.

He knew himself now, completely and utterly. He could feel every part of his body in exquisite detail, and push it beyond what he once had. It was like waking up from a dream to realize that this was the real world. Ranma had always been connected to his body, but this was far different, and far more powerful in its own subtle way.

Combining those two let Ranma realize what the Queen of Fae had given him, oh so long ago. It slept right now, un-molded and without direction, but it was there. A well of magic, just enough for something very special.

Ranma was now trying to create this something special. Using this massive creature as a test subject. It wasn't anything he consciously crafted. Ranma never really worked that way, he just did what felt RIGHT. So it was with almost absent minded detail that he began to trace a circle around the creature. Quietly and with a grin on his face the whole time.

Yuuko watched, absently curious at first, but then truly fascinated as she saw the ambient magic of the creature begin to wind around Ranma. The martial artist was almost dancing as he twisted and twirled in a full circle. Finally at the last step, right where he started, Ranma laughed.

"One last dance." His voice called out in jubilation.

The snake creature ignored the voice, lunging forward, convinced that this was the time that it would eliminate the pest. It took no note of the fact that it was going transparent. It only really noticed it when it's jaws went right through Ranma. Then it didn't really notice anything.

Closing his eyes, Ranma took a deep breath, letting it out with a loud woosh. For a moment it seemed behind his eyes that a snake had continued to lunge forward, but now there was nothing but Ranma.

Yuuko looked on stunned. "You banished the snake to your dreamscape, then destroyed it." Left unsaid was that magic like that was both rare and very powerful.

Ranma laughed, caught up in a strange rush. "Well, I didn't think it would go quite like that."

Yuuko made her way to Ranma, cupping the boy's cheek. "No, not destroyed, you devoured it. Took some of its power and cast away the rest."

"Heh." Ranma scratched his head. "I think that particular technique is going into the do not use pile."

"Indeed. Something that strong could be quite the burden." Yuuko looked into Ranma's eyes, looking for something. "Be careful with it, please."

"No problem Yuuko." Ranma grasped Yuuko's hand in his own. "Thank you though."

"Of course my knight." Yuuko made to pull back.

Ranma smirked, and did something that he would later blame on the magical high of the snake's life. He pulled Yuuko forward and kissed her. As first kisses went, it wasn't that skilled, but it still caused Ranma's senses to go absolutely haywire. For one brief instance he was drugged on Yuuko's very proximity, and was acutely aware of every inch of her femininity. It was an intoxicating instant that was both too fast, and too slow.

Pulling back a bit, Ranma blushed to a very deep red at the look in Yuuko's eyes. "I am gonna go check on Watanuki."

Yuuko just giggled as Ranma vanished from sight. The silly boy had made her wait for this long, she could wait a little while longer. As she entered the building she paused at the doorway, looking up tot he sky with a slightly melancholy expression. End game was coming soon, and she would be a fool to waste the time she had left.